Category Archives: free verse poetry

My mouth is made to kiss & wants to but in the safety of this restaurant, my lips can only shape words to charm. I laugh, simply to allow sound my breath carries to break against your skin. While I … Continue reading →

My hands are peasant hands shaped to mold clay, knead dough. My feet are most beautiful stained dark purple flat feet made to walk wine from grapes or stomp barn dances. These legs carry a body made for children, widehipped … Continue reading →

I remember her in mirrors when light touches my cheekbones at certain angles, surprising to find her French variations in Irish features. She, who always smelled of Dove soap, is responsible. She taught her daughter to love language. I played … Continue reading →

It is dangerous to stray far from my own skin, world wrapped tight like bandages, smothering.  Still, I read newspapers: Stories of women scalding the devil out of children in anonymous bathrooms, bodies left torn and empty in ditches,  fields, … Continue reading →

The doll her father brought from Thailand belongs to this room, a study in patience. This doll knows how women with bound feet kept time, measured hours learning art of black widows spinning intrigue, perfecting poison. But this doll waits … Continue reading →

How did fat Swallow these hipbones? When I was 16 Skin was so close to bone The mirror Was an anatomy lesson Still, sometimes This fatwoman loves Her body–it’s not portable Or led easily, Shaped like paleolithic fantasies of deep-bellied … Continue reading →